The Checklist Manifesto

Atul Gawande argues that many avoidable failures in medicine, government, finance and law persist because expert knowledge has grown too vast and complex for individuals to apply correctly and consistently every time. He examines how plain checklists are used in hospitals, aviation, investment banking and skyscraper construction to catch avoidable errors and make work more consistent and safe. The idea took hold, Gawande has said, when he read about a small child rescued from an icy pond by a doctor who leaned on checklists. Ideas from the book shaped a short WHO checklist for surgery, since adopted as a standard of care in more than twenty countries. He also weighs what checklists can and cannot do.

Tim Ferriss keeps a copy facing out on a living room shelf as a constant reminder. Jack Dorsey kept copies on his desk at Twitter and judged his work a success when they disappeared.